The Michigan State University community gathered at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts on Sept. 14 for the investiture of the 2022 class of endowed chairs, endowed professors, and MSU Foundation professors. The ceremony was a celebration of their accomplishments and a celebration of the philanthropic support that makes these esteemed positions possible. Dr. Kristen Renn, newly named Mildred B.…
Alexis Black is always up for a good fight. And since February 2022, the Assistant Professor of Acting and Movement at Michigan State University has been choreographing stage combat for the Tony Award-nominated production of Macbeth, currently on Broadway, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. Working alongside her long-time mentor David Leong, Black is the Assistant Fight Director for the production, which runs…
In this Faculty Voice, Catherine Ryu, Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, shares how Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month is important to recognize and celebrate, but also the need to go beyond public awareness. Ryu says concerted and sustained efforts are needed to create a more inclusive culture for all. At MSU, Ryu also serves as Director of the…
In this Faculty Voice, Rajiv Ranjan, an Assistant Professor of Hindi-Urdu in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, talks about some of the misperceptions and nuances related to South Asian languages and culture. Ranjan also reflects on why Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month in May is important to recognize and celebrate. At MSU ,…
Steven Fraiberg, Associate Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University, received a 2022 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Technical and Scientific Communication Award for the Best Article Reporting Qualitative or Quantitative Research in Technical or Scientific Communication. Fraiberg’s article, “Unsettling Start-Up Ecosystems: Geographies, Mobilities, and Transnational Literacies in the Palestinian Start-Up…
The Cube, which is housed in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) and offers publication resources for the Michigan State University campus community and beyond, has won a 2021-2022 Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant (CEIG) to support three of its projects. CEIG funding is awarded to projects that aim to create a more inclusive educational and work environment for all. The Cube…
Part of Michigan State University’s Film Studies Program core faculty for five years, Kaveh Askari is now the director of the program. He began his tenure as Film Studies Director in August 2021.
Among the first generation on her mother’s side born outside the Jim Crow South and the first generation on her father’s side born outside Ghana, West Africa, Dr. Chamara Jewel Kwakye’s family, on both sides, have always placed education as paramount, and not just any kind of education, but rather an education that clearly connects to the freedom of the…
A scholar, performer, and educator, Gianina K. Lockley joined MSU’s Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) on August 16, 2021, as a Research Associate whose work is situated at the intersection of critical race theory, ethnography, storytelling, theatre, dance, and performance studies with a focus on the study of race, class, gender, and sexuality within both staged performances and the performative practices of every day.
The American Folklore Society (AFS), the country's professional society for folklorists, has awarded Marsha MacDowell, Professor in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design and MSU Museum Curator, the 2020 recipient of the society's Benjamin A. Botkin Prize for significant lifetime achievement in the field of public folklore. MacDowell is the Curator of Folk Arts and Quilt Studies at…